


Rise little Partridge

by Rainbowwing869



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: All writing advice welcome, Author is not good at summaries, Different elements from different Fandoms, F/F, F/M, What I think The Scorching was, first fic ever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23670244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbowwing869/pseuds/Rainbowwing869
Summary: The Scorching, the chosen name for a war turning every tribe against one another. With no end in sight it seemed that the war would lead to the destruction of Pyrrhia and all the dragon tribes.However, The Scorching would be the catalyst for one dragon and his descendants to completely turn Pyrrhia, and even other realms, on their heads.This is the story of the first Partridge.
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue: The Scorching

100,000 years before the War of SandWing Succession 

No one knew how the war began. The few dragons alive who could remember, described a feeling of tenseness in the air. As though the world itself was preparing for the conflict that was to come. None could truly recall what finally caused the peace to shatter without warning.   
Some blamed the minor skirmishes erupting between tribes on the edges of territory. Others would claim that it was the BeetleWings suddenly leaving to places unknown from their rainforest home that caused paranoia to turn to hostility.   
  


No matter the reason for the war’s beginning several facts remained the same. That just a year after the entire BeetleWing tribe suddenly left Pyrrhia, the continent exploded into war.   
It was every tribe for themselves, no true monarchies had been established. There were only large groups of same tribe dragons fighting tribe against tribe in a near genocidal war.   
The war had even been given a name: 

The Scorching. 

Named for the fires that would burn for days in a battle’s aftermath, the ground was said to have been so charred from the fighting dragons, that not even the most fire-loving plants could grow in the area for years after.   
As time went on it was obvious that there was no clear end in sight for the war. It has only been seven years since The Scorching began, but the high death tolls and amount of destruction across the continent created the illusion that the war had been going on for far longer than it really had.   
It seemed that eventually the dragons would lead to their own downfall, destroying their home and leading to their own extinction.   
  


However this bleak future would never come to pass. Instead The Scorching would be the catalyst for one dragon and his descendants to completely change the course of not only the dragon planet, but other realms and even the multiverse itself.   
It may seem hard to believe, but one dragon’s journey down the rabbit hole of power, love, (and sheer absurdity) led to the creation of a kingdom and family line beyond the logical thought of many.   
  


And it all began with a single clutch of MudWing eggs.


	2. Chapter 1: Of Siblings and Names

The first thing he saw was darkness, the first thing he felt was the cramped space around him and the feeling of rubbing up against other things, similar to what he was trapped in. Curiosity giving way to irritation he pushed as hard as he could. The next thing he saw was a blinding light, and the next thing he felt was the feeling of hitting the marshy ground.   
He let out an undignified squawk as he tumbled out of the nest and struggled to right himself.   
Taking in his new surroundings, he looked back up from where he had fallen and saw a nest in a mound of mud several inches off the ground. Turning and craning his neck he could see other nests all around him, just like the one he had fallen out of seconds ago.   
  


Instincts began to tell him to climb back into the nest, and he was just starting to move when he caught sight of his reflection in a puddle next to the nest.   
The scales on the top of his head were a dull bronze color and the ones on his chin and neck were an extremely pale brown.  
His face was covered in scales so dark brown, they looked almost black, and saw that the membrane on his wings was the same color as his neck and his horns were the same dull bronze as the top of his head. When suddenly his attention was brought to his eyes.   
They were an incredibly striking and deep shade of ultramarine, as though two sapphires had been delicacy placed in a mud puddle.   
  


Suddenly he was knocked out of his reverie by the sound of shaking and cracking coming from his nest. The instincts that told him to get moving in the first place returned ten fold and he quickly made his way back into the nest. When he had climbed back in, he saw that one of the other eggs was starting to crack open and he could hear the quiet noises from inside seemingly asking for his help.   
He approached the egg and gave it a hard *thwack* with his talon causing a large part of the egg to break off, and the dragonet inside to come tumbling out. He could see that the other dragonet looked a lot like him, except her eyes were a golden yellow and the scales on her face and body were a light sephia instead of a brown so dark, it looked almost black.   
Almost instantly he approached the next egg and proceeded to help that dragonet out of its egg until he was helping the last and smallest dragonet out of her egg.   
  


But, in her excitement to hatch she accidentally tumbled out the egg, boxed him on the nose with her talon and proceeded to fall right on top of him head first. He let out a squawk more out of surprise than actual pain, but the small dragonet quickly got off of him and stood in front of him, her ears folded back in shame. 

Her wings and underbelly were brown, while her body was a light rust color and the scales on her head, leading down her back, were a slightly darker color than her wings and underbelly, and her eyes were a bright, sunny yellow.   
She squeaked an apology as the rest of their siblings gathered around them. He responded with a low trill, meaning “It’s fine” as he approached and nuzzled her shoulder. Which she responded to by wrapping her forearms around his neck and hugging him, which the three other dragonets quickly joined in on. 

The group hug ended far too soon in his opinion, but gave him a chance to look around once more. He saw that the eggs in other nests had hatched as well and the dragonets were all walking over to a piece of grassy land that seemed to go on forever. He hoisted himself onto the nests edge and gave a commanding bark, drawing his siblings attention to him. He gave a series of chirps and squeaks as he gestured to the grassy plain with a wing and made a “follow me” gesture with his talon and jumped down to the marshy ground below the rest of his siblings followed. 

He did a quick count to make sure all of his sibs were following, including the second oldest who looked so similar to him, the third and fourth oldest (both males) who looked exactly alike with the same auburn wings and under bellies with dirt brown scales in different shades all over their bodies. The only difference between them was the third oldest who had a ring of auburn scales around his left eye. And last but not least, the youngest dragonet, who now seemed attached to him at the shoulder.   
  


As they approached the edge of the grassy field the young MudWing realized that she was more than likely going to be stuck to him like this for a while. But as soon as that revelation hit, he found that he did not mind that idea at all.

6 Years later...

”Where are you Little One? Time to eat!” Bigwings shouted as he walked under a tree growing out the moist earth. He could hear muffled giggles from up in the tree, and a smile made its way onto his face. “Oh well,” he said in the same shouting tone as before but now with a hint of teasing in his voice. “I suppose I’ll just have to eat your cow myself then.” “Nooooooo!” Little One shrieked happily as she jumped from her perch up in the tree and landed on his back, causing him to let out a grunt as his legs buckled under him and he hit the ground with a *thump*.   
“Ouch.” He said bluntly in a monotone voice. “Hey, you don’t get to say that! You were gonna eat my cow!” Little One said in an accusatory voice as she climbed off his back.   
“You know I was only joking right? I’d never eat your cow and you know it.” Bigwings said as he heaved himself up off the ground. “I know,” she replied “But it SOUNDED like you would, that’s why I jumped.”  
Bigwings said “Oh? why DID you jump out of that tree then? If you knew I was kidding?” He asked jokingly. “To teach your a lesson about eating my food.” She huffed. “Now let’s get back to camp, I’m starving.”   
  
As the two siblings made their way across the marshy, reed covered plain back to camp, Bigwings’s mind returned to where it had been before he was asked to go bring Little One back for dinner: Names. 

Because MudWing parents almost never took care of their dragonets it was up to the dragonets themselves to come up with their own names.   
His second eldest sibling, who now went by Willow, believed this made MudWing names more personal and special compared to the names of dragons from other tribes, whose names were selected, as she said “Completely at random the second they hatch.”   
While his other sibs, the third and fourth oldest who looked almost exactly alike, had decided to name themselves similarly as well. They now went by Heron and Egret respectively, leaving him and his littlest sibling as the only ones who had yet to pick their names, just being called Bigwings and Little One as placeholders until they made their choices.   
  


With a start he realized that Little One wasn’t following him anymore, instead shoving her head into a line of reeds several yards from a tall grassy hill covered in oak trees. He huffed and marched over to her, and, lowering his voice so he wouldn’t startle her said “Come on, I may have been kidding about eating your cow, but if we don’t hurry Egret will eat ours both. The glutton.” “Shhhhhh” Whispered his sister. “Look, at the base of that tree, what are they?” Bigwings rolled his eyes but stuck his head through the line of reeds anyway and quickly saw what his sister was looking at. They were small, plump, and had gray and rust colored feathers all over their bodies. “They’re called partridges.” He explained. “Pretty uncommon to see in the swamp, I think they’re supposed prefer grasslands.” As Bigwings started to pull his head out of the reeds he looked over at Little One who, at this point, seemed utterly entranced by the birds in front of her, but caught his gaze and followed her brother’s example. Both dragons, now with both of their heads out of the reeds, started their walk once more. 

Several minutes later, and just as Bigwings started to hear the familiar noises coming from the camp ahead, Little One suddenly blurted “Partridge!” Bigwings stopped and turned to his sister dumbfounded. “I’m sorry?” He said confused.   
Little One huffed in the way she did when he or any of their other sibs failed to understand something as quickly as she liked.”Partridge,” she said slowly. “I want to be called Partridge. When you said what those little birds were called- it just clicked for me! It’s the perfect-“ She was cut off from her rambling as her brother held up a talon as he always did when one of them was talking too fast or too loud and he wanted to get a word in edgewise.   
“I think,” he said “That you don’t have to explain your personal choices to me, and Partridge is a perfect name.” “You really think so?”   
Bigwings smiled “It suits you,” the smile turned teasing, “My little Partridge” He said in that older sibling tone he knew she could never get mad at him for no matter how hard she tried. “Bigwiiiiiiiiings” she said feigning irritation. “Oh come here!” He said grabbing her and bringing her into a hug.  
”Nooooooo!” She fake-screamed trying trying squirm out of her big brother’s forearms. “Let me go! Bigwings!” “Never!” Bigwings yelled as he loosened his grip and she squirmed away from the hug, brimming with happiness. “Come on Bigwings! Let’s go tell everyone my new name!” She said right before she started dashing back to camp. Bigwings sighed and started running after her, wondering for the hundredth time how something so small could run so fast.   
  


He arrived at camp about a minute after Little- Partridge, he reminded himself. Who he could see being congratulated by Heron and Egret for choosing her name as Willow lay out the cows for dinner.   
He caught Willow’s eye and she walked over smirking. “So she saw a group of little gray birds and decided to name herself after them?” She said teasing. “In a nutshell.” He replied shrugging. Willow laughed and looked over at their other sibs who were eating their cows as fast as they could. “It fits her well.” Said Willow. Bigwings smiled and looked around at the other groups of sibs who had set up camp in the same area, some were eating their dinners with the same gusto as his little siblings while the older MudWings looked... afraid, to say the least, and kept looking at their little sibs as though they would vanish in an instant.   
He turned to Willow and asked her why.   
She sighed and said “There are rumors that the war is entering its most dangerous phase yet. Soon no truly peaceful piece of land will exist and every dragon will have to fight to survive. Many are terrified that they will lose their sibs to The Scorching.” Willow spoke quietly as not to draw the attention of the still eating Heron, Egret, and Partridge. “Do you think we have any real chance of avoiding the war anymore?” He asked. “Do you think that soon we will have to join a wing and fight?”   
Willow sighed again and met his burning blue gaze with a charged golden stare of her own. “I think that soon we won’t have a choice.” Suddenly her stare lightened. “But psyching ourselves out won’t do anything good right now. Our little sister just chose her name, we should be happy and celebrating! Plus, I am NOT planning on loosing my cow to Egret.” He looked over and saw Egret looking hungrily at his elder siblings’s cows, but quickly smiled and looked away nervously when met with both of his older sibs glaring at him. Bigwings and Willow looked back at each other and laughed.   
“Your right,” said Bigwings “We can worry later, for now, we celebrate.” They both then walked over to the rest of their sibs to eat their cows and talk.   
  


After dinner, Bigwings’s mind was back on names again, now he was the only one of his sibs who didn’t have a real name, only a placeholder.   
He walked to the edge of their campsite where the remains of dinner had been piled up to be taken and thrown into the river off the muddy cliff about a minute’s walk away from the MudWing campsites.   
“Are you still thinking? About names I mean.” A timid voice asked. Bigwings turned and saw Partridge behind him. “It’s hard not too.” He admitted as he picked up the bones and walked to the edge of the muddy cliff overlooking the river’s edge, Partridge following closely. “You all have names now, and I’m happy for all of you, I just...want one of my own is all.” He said as he threw the bones off the cliff’s edge and they landed in the water with a *splash*.   
“I’m sure you’ll find your name soon Bigwings.” Partridge said as she smiled and started to walk back to camp. Bigwings stayed sitting for a short while, looking up at the stars and loosing himself in the night sky, one of his favorite things to do when he had a moment of reprieve.   
  


Eventually he got up and turned, preparing to walk back to camp, when all of a sudden the loose wet earth gave way beneath his back talons. He hit the ground sliding backwards down the cliff and towards the river. Thankfully the cliff was slanted and the water near the bank was slow and shallow. So though it felt like he had hit every bump on the way down the cliff, was now wetter than he would ever prefer to be, and half buried in mud, he was otherwise unharmed.   
Bigwings groaned and yanked one talon after another out of the thick mud before spreading his wings (and mentally kicking himself for not thinking to use his wings sooner) and flying back up, over the cliff and landing right in the middle of camp...   
  


Where his sibs took one look at him and burst out laughing.   
  


Bigwings groaned as he realized that he was still covered in large amounts of mud from his fall down the cliff. Heron and Egret were holding each other up as they descended into a giggling fit. Willow had actually fallen over she was laughing so hard. Partridge was laughing just as hard as her brothers and sister, when her laugher slowed down and she looked like she was thinking about something before letting out a loud bark of laughter. “I know what your name could be!” She said through her giggles, “How about Muck? I think it suits you well brother!” Heron and Egret had to quiet their laughter as Willow walked over to their littlest sibling and began to reprimand her for taking the teasing farther than she liked.   
But Bigwings actually started to think.   
Muck wasn’t the worst name that had been suggested to him, and all other names he had considered just never seemed to fit him. They were either too serious, or too sweet, or sometimes just boring, but Muck..... 

“I like it!” He blurted, smiling like he had just been given the most precious gift he would ever receive.   
“Wait.” Said Willow, “I think Partridge was just kidding about-“ “It doesn’t matter.” He interrupted. “I really do like it, it’s not too serious or sweet it’s just silly and that’s why it’s so...me. You know?”   
Willow sighed knowing there was no way she could change her brother’s mind now. “Of course I know what it feels like, it’s how all of us felt when we picked our names but...why Muck?”   
Muck smiled, looked over at Partridge and said, 

“Because my little Partridge says it fits me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me if some of the grammar or spelling is off. I’m typing this out on my phone and though I have caught some mistakes I’m afraid I missed others. 
> 
> Anyway next chapter our newly named protagonist gets a harsh dose of war-torn reality and learns a little something about himself that will change his life forever.


	3. The Power Within

It had been several days since Partridge and Muck had gotten their names and the sibs had fallen back into their normal routine of hunting and moving across the swamp with several other MudWing troops. Because of the war, no piece of land stayed untouched (or untorched) for long, so the safest option for those who want to avoid the war is to keep moving. There were not many groups like their's across MudWing territory (or across other tribes territory as far as Muck could guess), nomadic groups of dragons living together trying to stay away from war. Sometimes they would come across another group and they would mingle and trade news of the war. That was how the rumors of the war gaining severity had first entered their group, apparently while Muck was looking for Partridge a few days ago, another group had walked by their's and talked with the other MudWings including his sibs before quickly flying off. 

  
On occasion however, their group had managed to come across Wings of MudWing warriors. Usually their group had only gotten a passing look at them in the past with no interaction between the two groups, with Muck's group trying to avoid the war, and the soldier's going off to fight in the war. Muck had gotten to see a Wing up close only once before. A small patrol of soldiers had found their group one day years ago, and asked for volunteers with them to their Wing and train to become soldiers. To Muck's surprise, three sib groups had decided to follow the soldiers back to their camp. Later that day Muck followed the the trail the soldier's left to their camp over a hill near where Muck's group had set up camp. He had taken one look at the camp through his hiding spot in a clump of reeds on the side of the hill to see hundreds, possibly even a thousand MudWings running drills and practicing fighting techniques. But all he could see were MudWings no older than he was at the time learning how to hurt and kill and couldn't help but imagine his own sibs in the position of those other dragonets. When he was finally knocked out of this stupor, he ran back to camp and vowed to do everything he could to keep himself and his siblings away from The Scorching. 

  
Today, the war was the farthest thing from his mind. Willow had decided that Egret's hunting skills could use some work, so Muck had decided to take Heron and Partridge fishing. He had only had the chance to fish rarely in the past, but he had managed to get the technique down easily and his sibs always enjoyed the fish he brought back as it was a rare treat for them. So he took them to a large river that marked the edge of the swamp about a mile away from camp. They had a limited time to fish because they were positioned close to SkyWing territory and Muck wanted to get some fish and leave before they were noticed by any patrols. As Heron and Partridge quickly got the hang of fishing, Muck turned his gaze to the sky across the river as he kept an eye out for streaks of red or orange on the horizon that would signal the approach of a SkyWing patrol. He could just barely see the tops of the Claws of the Cloud mountains, more specifically the top of Agate Mountain, the tallest mountain in Pyrrhia. 

  
Soon Heron and Partridge had quickly caught a large amount of fish, and it was clear they were going to need a way to get the fish back to camp, so Muck decided to to make a net from the vines growing off the many trees on their side of the river. He had kept his guard up for hours to make sure nothing happened, three MudWings this close to SkyWing territoy was a disaster waiting to happen. Though Muck had made sure all of his siblings knew how to defend themselves properly, he couldn't help but worry for his sibs. But Muck had been keeping such a vigilant eye on the sky, he forgot to keep an eye on the surrounding swampy woodland. Muck had been struggling to get a vine out of a tree that was covered in a thin layer of sap, that kept making the vine stick to the tree wherever it touched, until finally, with one last tug the vine came free of the tree. At that same moment Muck heard Partridge scream and the sound of Heron and several other dragons roar.   
Muck quickly whipped around and saw three SkyWings, the smallest dragon, the color of rust had leapt at Partridge, but Heron quickly knocked the sky dragon aside. That caused the orange SkyWing to roar and lunge at Heron but Muck intercepted the blow with his own tackle, knocking the air out of his lungs. The red SkyWing was standing to the side, watching with an almost embarrassed expression on his face. 

  
Until Partridge snuck up on him and bit his tail. 

That was all Muck had the chance to see as the SkyWing under him surged up to claw at his face. As Muck brought his talons up to block the blow he caught the quickest glimpse of the vine still stuck to his talon. Muck blocked the blow and suddenly heard a hissing noise from the SkyWing and knew he only had a small amount of time to act, and he already had a risky idea. Muck twisted the orange sky dragon below him and ducked to the opposite side to avoid the flames the best he could, his wing only getting slightly singed in the process and then quickly threw himself onto the SkyWing, pinning the orange dragon down. For a second Muck could see his siblings fighting the other two dragons, with Heron outmatching the small rust-colored SkyWing in sheer strength and Partridge outmaneuvering the larger red SkyWing by ducking around his attacks and striking when she could. Muck was relieved to see his sibs holding their own, but his relief did not last long as pain blossomed along his forearm as the SkyWing under him bit down, causing Muck to let out a roar and causing the SkyWing to slide out of his hold. Soon after the two dragons were in a free-for-all brawl. Muck could hardly hear anything other than the blood pounding in his head and the thumping of his own heart as he focused on the battle before him. At least until he heard a familiar roar echo throughout the clearing. 

It was Partridge! The SkyWing she was fighting was standing over her and smoke was starting to stream from his mouth as the dragon readied his fire breath. Without thinking Muck grabbed the side of the orange SkyWing's head and slammed him into a tree as hard as he could before quickly starting to run over to Partridge. Heron saw all of this happen and tried to follow his brother as he ran towards their sister but the small SkyWing he was fighting lunged and grabbed his leg as Heron started to run, causing him to fall and quickly turn and try to pry the rust-colored dragon off his leg. 

As Muck ran he realized he would not be able to get over to his sister in time. 'Nononononononono' were the only thoughts going through his mind and he urged himself to try and run faster as the SkyWing prepared to breath fire point blank at his little sister. "No, no please..." Muck panted as he ran "Don't let him breath fire, don't let him hurt her.." 

The vine that had been stuck to his talon suddenly ripped itself off, and flew towards the SkyWing, wrapping itself around the red dragons snout. Cutting off the flames before they reached Partridge. 

Muck, still running as fast as he could towards Partridge, stared in shock. Had he just done that? What just happened? Muck decided to think about it later and jumped at the SkyWing, who was struggling to try and pull the vine off his snout, and pinned him to the ground. Muck's eyes met those of the SkyWing, that to Muck's shock showed nothing but fear. Muck supposed that was to be expected, especially considering even Muck didn't know what he just did, but it did give Muck an idea. "If you promise to not attack us and leave right now, we will let you go. I'll take the vine off as well." The SkyWing looked at Muck with confusion clear on his face, Muck could also feel the confused stares of his siblings, wary and burning into the back of his head. "You heard me, if I take off the vine and let you leave you must swear to not attack us or try to harm us in any way." The SkyWing looked around the best he could, and seeing that the other SkyWings were unconscious and pinned down just like he was looked at Muck and very slowly and reluctantly, nodded. Muck touched a claw to the vine on the SkyWing's face, and said "Vine... can you please release this dragon?" Suddenly the vine unwound and fell to the ground causing the SkyWing to take in a sharp breath of relief before Muck slowly let the sky dragon go. 

The SkyWing looked at Muck warily, before looking over at Heron who still had the rust-colored SkyWing pinned to the ground. "Heron, its okay, they wont attack us." "But.." "It will be fine, I promise, and have I ever broken a promise to any of you?" Heron shook his head and let the small SkyWing up. Who walked several steps toward the red SkyWing Muck let up, before turning back to Heron and-" SUMMIT!" the red SkyWing shouted "The're letting us go when they could easily kill (Muck flinched at this word, only Partridge noticing) us all! Don't attack them!" Summit nodded meekly before walking over to the orange SkyWing by the tree and shook him awake, the red SkyWing walking over to the both of them. The orange SkyWing opened his eyes and blinked, disoriented "Wha... happen?" He mumbled as he got up and looked at the other SkyWings. "The're letting us go, we should head back to camp." The red SkyWing said. "But... Eagle,why?" the orange SkyWing responded. "I'll explain on the way back, but we should get going NOW." The other SkyWings took this as their cue to be quiet and followed Eagle into the sky, flying back toward the Claws of the Cloud Mountains. Leaving Muck with Heron and Partridge staring at him, maws agape and eyes wide. Muck's expression fell as he held up a talon and looked at it. 

'Oh...I'm magic apparently.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it obvious I've never written a battle scene before? 
> 
> But anyway, I know this chapter was a long time coming and I did say that I had the entire story in my head, but that is not entirely truthful.  
> The story in my head was actually about one of Muck's descendants, my oc, and I thought I should write this first to give some level of exposition so the stories I WANT to do in the future will make more sense. And as time went on I kinda lost motivation for this. (I'm lazy I know)  
> So I decided that while I WILL try my best to finish this story, should I ever decide to just wrap it up and move on to the future stuff, I will put out a chapter giving a more condensed version of the rest of the story, so no one will be left without an ending to Muck's story. 
> 
> But that is a very last resort type thing, but to move the story along better I have decided to time skip around around a bit more to keep this story train moving.  
> Hope you all have had a good time reading this! -Rainbowwing869

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all writing advice is welcome.   
> I’ve had this story in my head for years, but now I actually have the time to write it out. Though some details still need ironing out I will do my best to write this out as it is in my head.


End file.
